A Shippuden Slender Game
by ChibiNineTails15
Summary: What starts out as an innocent Slenderman-like game in a dark forest quickly begins taking a turn for the worse for the Konoha shinobi when in the deep fog screams begin. One by one they are disappearing and it becomes clear: their little game...isn't so fun anymore. Someone-or Something has joined the party and it isn't playing around. Mild NaruHina moments.


_AN: I'm writing to improve for my writing is poor and friendly positive criticism would be much appreciated as I've never wrote a story like this before. I've really never dipped my toes in the world of horror but I hope to create my own. Thank you._

* * *

It was well past midnight and practically pitch-black by now in the Forest of Graves. What little of feeble moonlight there was was sheltered by gathering ominous clouds creating an eerie atmosphere. The air was tranquil and heavy. It was dead silent. Not even the usual night critters made noise, as if they sensed an oncoming predator's presence. A tempest was coming….

"Okay," spoke Sasuke Uchiha to the group of young adults circled around him. They had gathered together in the center of the massive and dark forest that would be their starting point. "Everyone understand the rules?"

The shinobi, most of Konoha's Rookie Nine and some of Team 7, nodded and glanced around at each other. They had been waiting for this night eagerly for many months now. The planning and preparations would finally merit the linger. They would have their game and no other soul, teacher nor bystander, would be about to prevent them from it. They would have absolute privacy: a dangerous thing when it comes to ninjas for who knows what they could do in the envelope of shadows. Not to facilitate they had any thing to worry about…Konoha ninja were like a kin to each-other. Surely not anything would get out of hand…Then again…..

"Nah, can you go over the rules one more time?" asked seventeen-year old Naruto Uzumaki as he fumbled around with his flashlight. Sasuke groaned in frustration.

"If you hadn't been playing around with you stupid flashlight you would have heard me. Idiot." he barked.

"Well it's acting up! Are you sure these are new batteries? And stop calling me names, jerk." Naruto protested. Sasuke always was in a foul mood when it came to Naruto. It had always been like that but got worse as they aged.

"You don't need it anyway. Now listen this time as I once again go over the rules, I loathe repeating myself. Idiot."

The group moaned inpatient for the game to begin. Hinata Hyuga blushed. She hadn't caught all the rules either, she silently moved closer to Naruto's shape in hopes of getting a better hearing and helping Naruto if she could.

"Now then, your goal is to gather as many pieces of paper as you can. They're taped all around this forest and when dawn breaks whoever has the most pieces of paper wins. That's the undemanding part. Now for the difficult part: I will be walking around and if you make any eye contact with my eyes whatsoever you will be trapped in my Genjutsu and rendered immobile for the rest of the night. It will be game over for you so I suggest running from me as hastily as you can…Which may be tricky when I can emerge out of nowhere…" Sasuke sneered.

Hinata gently grabbed Naruto's hand. She was thankful to the darkness hiding her crimson blush. Naruto turned his head around and gave a quiet chuckle.

"You're scared already, Hinata?"

She shook her head.

"Good, he may act all big and tough but he's harmless…for the most part."

"Naruto!" Sasuke yelled, hitting his arm.

"Ouch! What?"

"There's something I need to say regarding you and Hinata. Naruto, your Sage and Chakra mode is absolutely forbidden. You use them your dead, got that? It would defeat the purpose of the game if you could sense where I was. Also Hinata, no Byakugan allowed."

Hinata whispered yes, squeezing Naruto's hand.

"Hey Sasuke, you're scaring Hinata. Tone it down with the killing talk, would ya?"

The clustered group snickered. Ten Ten shook her head. Naruto was still so clueless sometimes. How Hinata waited so patiently for him was beyond her. She didn't even know how she herself dealt with Lee….Speaking of Lee, where was he? Sai and Kiba also seemed to be missing from the group…It's probably just too dark to see them, she thought to herself. But…shouldn't Sai's ghostly pale skin and Akamaru's white fur stick out in this darkness? She pushed the thought aside. In this game it would be every ninja (and dog) for themselves. She decided to stay with Lee for the majority of the night though, so she'd have a better chance…She finally caught sight of him among the other shinobi forms in the darkness.

Even in the darkness she could see Rock Lee's round eyes on fire with determination. She smiled to herself. He was intent on winning by the looks of it. He probably looked at this game as extra training knowing him. Also he had a major advantage that no one else did. Speed. 'Just imagine if he takes off the weights he's always wearing. He'd probably circle the entire forest grabbing all the papers before anyone else gets a chance.' Ten Ten thought to herself proudly.

Sasuke cleared his throat loudly, getting everyone's attention."Is everyone ready to run?"  
Ino and Sakura elbowed each-other as they geared up for the game. To them, this game was just a competition to win Sasuke's heart. Ten Ten got some of her weapon and tool scrolls in hand and got Lee's attention. He nodded to her. Shino's glasses flashed in the darkness. Everyone was waiting for the prompt.

Hinata leaned over and whispered in Naruto's ear, "Can we team up, Na-Naruto-kun?"

He smiled. "Sure thing Hinata, I could use an extra flashlight!"

"Everyone run! It begins NOW!"

With that there was screaming and shouting as the group fled from the center. Everyone was going in all directions. Their figures disappeared in the foggy darkness. The wind blew fiercely through the dead leafs making strange noises as if it was laughing at them. Naruto was going as fast as he could in the opposite direction of most everyone else. Hinata had to hold tightly on to Naruto's hand, he was going so fast.

They flew past many trees till finally the number of them seemed to be decreasing and the number of grave stones increasing. The fog thickened the further they traveled. She tried keeping watch for papers but it was near impossible as she could only see a few feet in front of her and Naruto was going too fast for them to even be able to search at all.

"Naruto-kun! Hang on!" she shouted desperately as they continued running at a fast pace. Suddenly she felt herself trip over an unseen object and she slammed into the ground sending Naruto with her.

"Owwie…You okay?" He asked standing up and shaking the fallen leafs off him.

Hinata rubbed her ankle as she sat on the parched ground.

"Yes, um, I tripped over something…Really hard. What was it?"

Naruto moved his flashlight around till it shone on the stone item that she had tripped over. It was a small grave stone. The corner had been chipped off.

"Uh-oh, not to sound superstitious but I really hope you didn't make this guy mad. Ghost creep me out…" Naruto chuckled nervously.

Hinata whimpered, "I didn't mean too…I shouldn't have been running, it's not safe to in the dark."

"Oh, it's fine Hi-wait a minute! There's a piece of paper!" Naruto bent down jerking the paper off the stone. The second it was free a loud wind blew with the sound of screams. A howl could be heard off in the distance.

Naruto shivered. "Ha ha…nice sound-effects, that Sasuke…Hinata, do you remember when Iruka-sensei was teaching about the Forest of Graves?"

Hinata got to her feet, her ankle stinging. She pushed the pain aside and focused on Naruto instead.

"Of course. Why?"

"Did he tell us if there was any wolves in it?"

"No, Naruto, there are only small creature here. Don't you remember?"

"I guess I was sleeping…geography always bored me."

Hinata smiled. "The only things here are old abandoned graves."

Naruto bent down to examine the one she had tripped over.  
"Why put graves in the forest?" He asked staring at the blank stone.

"War." She whispered. After a moment or two she continued.

"A long time ago, no one knows the exact time, a war or some battle was fought here. When it was over it's said that no one could even recognize their bodies. Since no one claimed their bodies they were buried where they were found."

"I see…I should probably back away a bit…oh! I forgot about the paper! Our first one!"

"Is there anything on it?" She inquired.

He held the paper up closer to his flashlight. In crimson lettering was written, "Screams of the dead ring on.…"

The wind blew again picking up leaves and carrying them off. A howl echoed in the distance. Naruto laughed nervously.

"That Sasuke...Is it going to keep doing that?"

* * *

Sakura hid behind a tree, her flashlight off, till she was sure it was dead silent and there was no one left in the center where they had began. When Sasuke had shouted 'go' and everyone ran off she stayed in the heart of the forest instead of running. 'If everyone runs in a direction he'd only chase after them. But…he wouldn't think to look in the starting spot. I don't think he saw me stay so I should be perfectly fine here…I was hiding by the time he finished re-explaining the rules to that Naruto. Besides there's bound to be some papers here anyway. More points for me! Tee-hee!" She thought giddily to herself.

She checked to make sure the space was clear before she left the safety of the tree. Not a soul was in sight. Good. She strolled through the undergrowth slowly as she looked around in the darkness for slips of paper. The more she walked the more the fog seemed to thicken. She paid no attention to it. A little bit of clouds wouldn't be enough to scare her. She focused her ears to the sounds around her…

A strange noise seemed to be following her. She ignored it and continued weaving in among the trees trying to find the paper. It was after some time later she realized the noise was closer and becoming more vociferous…What was it? It was shrilling, like a child's voice that had a cold. Or a cat whose tail you stepped on. She felt perspiration trickle down her forehead.

She wiped it off and braced herself.

"You'll have to do better then that." She said to herself and the emptiness around her trying to sound confident.

The noise seemed to suddenly cease and she exhaled a breath of relief. It was just her imagination she advised to herself. The darkness and fog was getting to her head. Speaking of fog…Her flashlight was useless against the thickening fog by now. She wanted to throw it down but she might need it later. She put it away in her bag. 'I might as well save the battery…'

She then noticed a piece of paper hanging on a broken branch of a tree that was a foot from her. She smiled to herself and reached for it. She pulled it off, examining it.

"'It's behind you.'" She read. "Oh that's cute."

She folded it and placed it in her bag with her flashlight. She had a lot more forest to cover and the night would just tick by if she kept poking around.

She was about to take another step when all of a sudden the shrilling voice screamed again but loudly, piercing the air all around her in one dreadful long agonized note, it's sound seemed to be coming from all directions. Leaves blew violently around her, almost like they were trying to cut her. An aroma of decompressed bodies surfaced in the air.

She lost her calm demeanor. Dropping her bag she began running trying to get away from It-what ever It was. She began seeing red eyes flash by in every tree she ran past. She pushed herself to go faster. She was being chased by something and she didn't want to turn around and look and get caught…Was she caught in a genjutsu? Impossible, Sasuke was no-where in sight! She was so sure of it!

Suddenly out of no where she was knocked on her stomach by a seemingly invisible force and it began dragging and clawing her. She screamed as loud as she could.

* * *

Naruto was stuffing their first paper find in his pocket when they heard the scream.

"That sounded like Sakura-chan!" Naruto exclaimed his eyes set in the distance where the scream had came from.

"'Screams of the dead ring on…'" Hinata quoted. "Naruto, I don't like this…."

Naruto gulped shaking his head, "Hinata, it's just a game. Don't get your pa-Don't freak out so easily, there's nothing to worry about." He was trying to reassure himself more then anything. He knew Sakura pretty well by now being her teammate all these years. They had been in pretty dangerous situations….That scream…That was a hurt scream, not a surprise scream.

No, Sasuke wouldn't hurt her…Would he? Maybe he caught her with a little too strong genjutsu. Yeah, he reasoned with himself. That had to be it.

"Let's keep moving Na-Na-Naruto-kun." Hinata stuttered. "We need to get as far away from that direction as possible if it means he's over there."

"Yeah," He agreed. "But let's take it more slowly this time. I don't want to miss anything or trip over anymore graves. Man I hate this fog, it just keeps getting thicker and thicker."

Hinata gently grabbed his hand. He eventually squeezed it back as they walked through the darkness trying to find the slips of paper.

* * *

Ino couldn't stop shaking. Shikamaru sighed and patted his teammate on her shoulder. "Ino, she's fine."

They were sitting on a fallen tree in the darkness taking a break. They had turned their flashlights off as they weren't needed at the moment. The moonlight illuminated the tree perfectly leaving them in the clear night air.

Ino shook her head. "Shikamaru, something's wrong with her. I can just tell…"

"You girls are such a drag…" He laughed to himself. "Right, Chouji? Chouji?"

Their round teammate was nowhere in sight. Ino felt panic creep up on her. Suddenly Ino screamed as something shot out from the trees behind them.


End file.
